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Mr. John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings): I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for allowing me to intervene because I was not in the Chamber at the beginning of his speech, for which I apologise. The hon. Gentleman has expressed concern for disabled people and I wonder whether he agrees with the Government's attack on them--for example, the withdrawal of legal aid from disabled people will prevent those who endure serious accidents from pursuing their proper rights to obtain adequate compensation through the courts. Is that the sort of generosity that typifies the Government's approach to disabled people?
Mr. Purchase: The hon. Gentleman may apologise for not being present for the beginning of my speech, but he should be ashamed--admittedly, he was not in the House at the time--of what the Conservative Government did from 1992 to 1997. He should have seen the obstructions that the then Conservative Government placed in the way of every proposal that was made in this place to assist disabled people. Not once could we rely on the then Government to do anything positive for disabled people. We shall be positive. We shall introduce new methods, means and processes whereby disabled people will be able to look after themselves in a dignified and proper way.
Mr. Harry Barnes (North-East Derbyshire): Was not the Leader of the Opposition, who now says that he will support the disability rights commission, the person who, as a junior Minister in the Department of Health and Social Security, blocked at every stage, time and time again, legislation for disabled persons' civil rights and any attempt to introduce into Government legislation a disability discrimination commission element? Does my hon. Friend agree that such proposals were blocked in this place and in the Lords? Indeed, in the Lords the activity against such proposals was organised, along with the voting against them, by Lady Thatcher.
Mr. Purchase: My hon. Friend speaks with great experience. He was one of the hardest-working Members in trying to ensure that disabled people had greater
liberties, better rights and more processes open to them by which they might find justice. No doubt my hon. Friend still feels exceedingly frustrated by what happened during the period to which he referred. There is no way in which the Opposition can criticise the Government. We are only 18 months into government after 18 years of dilatoriness--that is the only way in which it can be described--in dealing with the rights of disabled people.
I believe that regional development agencies will massively assist the country through its regions to regenerate the activity and competitiveness that are vital to our wealth and welfare. The RDAs provide the best opportunity for the west midlands to recover from the days when unemployment was endemic. We are now seeing, even in my constituency, unemployment falling extremely quickly. I believe that that trend will continue. The RDAs present us with the best possible chance of a full recovery.
We are particularly well blessed--if that is the term--in the west midlands with a network of motorways that gives us good access to the rest of the country, including major ports and airports. There are tremendous development opportunities alongside our new motorways, including the M42 and the M54. These areas, especially those in the north-west of the region, will assist us in attracting inward investment and generating our own investment--that is important. We have a tremendous opportunity to contribute to the growth of high-technology industries, particularly through the communications network that is now available to the west midlands.
There are some wonderful regional champions. For example, in my constituency, there is Goodyear, which in my opinion is still the world's leading tyre manufacturer. It produces tyres from the smallest to the largest. Those who have never had the opportunity of visiting a Goodyear factory anywhere in the world will be amazed at the variation in tyre sizes that are produced. The tyres range from the smallest, almost wheelbarrow jobs to tyres for super-jets. Goodyear is a regional champion in every sense of the word.
In the west midlands, there is champion after champion in the aerospace industry--for example, Lucas. In the auto industry, there is Rover, which I hope is fully on the way to recovery following recent agreements; I hope that those agreements pay off hand over fist for the company, and especially for those who work within it. Rolls-Royce is another example.
There are tremendous energy industries in the area which are well served by the communications network, including the motorways. There is a huge domestic market of 5.2 million people, which represents a tremendous opportunity. Account must be taken also of the work that is undertaken overseas in developing other energy markets, some of which I had the opportunity to see when I was a member of the Select Committee on Trade and Industry.
The midlands, especially the Potteries, has a tremendous history in ceramics. It has an even longer history, perhaps, in the glass industry. I think especially of Halesowen and Stourbridge in the west midlands. Given that the region is being defined on the map, we have the new opportunity of agriculture possibilities, which previously did not exist for the large urban
conurbations of the west midlands in Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Staffordshire, as well as Shropshire.
As for the reformation of the common agricultural policy, Britain's fine work in agriculture, improving productivity and using land to best effect, has impressed the world over the past 50 years. Reform of the CAP will open up opportunities for employment in the cities that the west midlands has never had before. Working with town and country in this sense provides an exciting opportunity for younger people, especially through the catering and food-processing industries. Opportunities will be opened up once we have managed to revise and improve the CAP.
My hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Mr. Mackinlay) mentioned enlargement of the European Community. That should be seen as a tremendous opportunity, and not something that will cause us great heartache. I believe that it will lead to important reforms of the CAP. It will lead also to reform of the structural and social funds, which is no bad thing. I think that the west midlands and other regions that have their heart in manufacturing should now be thinking much more about competing for business rather than queueing for grants.
I have no doubt that, as the Community expands its boundaries, the grants that we have been seeing in Britain over the past few years are bound to diminish. If social cohesion and structural funds mean anything, they will be much more carefully targeted at those areas that genuinely are falling well below per capita income in the rest of the Community. The widespread way in which the funds have been delivered so far has not always been the best approach and the funds have not always been best used.
I am not afraid of the challenge of enlargement of the EC. I think it means the opportunity for the region that I represent in part to go out and win new markets, new business and perhaps even new investment for the borough within my constituency.
I mentioned the House of Lords and how it might be dealt with at a later stage. It seems that the RDAs and the general regional set-up to which we are moving will offer sensible and good opportunities if we feel that the House of Lords must be topped up. I suggest that we should be taking from the regions people who could do a good job in a second Chamber that was reconstituted to be a proper scrutinising body. That would ensure that the local knowledge that people brought from their regions to that Chamber was put to best use. If my right hon. and hon. Friends on the Government Front Bench get the message, I hope that they will seriously consider my proposal. I am suggesting that, when we come to reform the second Chamber, the regions should be properly represented. That will at least give a link with democracy, because many of those on regional bodies will come from elected local authorities. We can take the best that is in the regions in terms of individuals' experience and knowledge and bring that into the parliamentary process to ensure that legislation truly reflects the regional needs of our country.
Mr. David Amess (Southend, West):
Today's weather accurately reflects my mood after the Gracious Speech. I feel thoroughly miserable about it. It was a dreadful speech because its proposals destroy the foundations on which our society is built. It was a speech prepared by a truly rotten Government. The British people are only beginning to understand how rotten the Government are.
In contrast to the speech made by the leader of the Labour party, my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition was articulate and spoke a great deal of common sense. I can best sum up the speech of the leader of the Labour party by referring hon. Members to the programme produced by Harry Enfield, in which we all observe the sermon of platitudes. All we heard today from the leader of the Labour party was endless platitudes.
Much of what the Government are doing is aimed at the Americanisation of the United Kingdom. Much as I like America and Americans, the closeness between the leader of the Labour party and the American President is pathetic to observe. The American President lied to the grand jury, then lied to the American people but, in everything that he wants the world to do, the leader of the Labour party follows. The right hon. Gentleman should be ashamed of his attempts to Americanise the United Kingdom.
I do not believe that the British people want our system to be corrupted, as the American system is, but that is what I see happening in this place--where we used to do a good job--day in, day out, week in, week out, and year in, year out. If I hear the word "modernisation" once more--in the Queen's Speech today, we heard it11 times--I shall scream. I challenge Labour Members to define "modernisation". They know nothing about our history and culture. We know that they hate anything that is old. They hate history. They are interested only in things that are new.
As for the Labour party supporting our senior citizens, I see no evidence of it. Of the Ministers appointed by the Government, by my reckoning only one qualifies as a senior citizen. That is how much they think of elderly people. The Labour Government claim to be compassionate and tolerant. I have seen nothing over the past 18 months to demonstrate their compassion and tolerance, particularly towards their own colleagues. That is the last thing that they demonstrate, but it might be embarrassing for me to highlight examples.
We hear in the Queen's Speech that we are to have open government. That must be the biggest joke of the year. For the past 18 months, everything has been stage managed. It has been a waste of time coming to the House of Commons, because the press are fed with the information a week or two beforehand. With one or two honourable exceptions, Labour Members, like stuffed dummies, follow everything that they are told to do by their bleepers. When I first came to Parliament, we had a big Conservative majority, but we had more guts and gumption than Labour Members. They know only too well that what their Government are doing is plain wicked, yet very few have the guts to stand up and challenge their Government.
The Government trumpet, "Education, education, education", but we all know Labour's hypocrisy on education. When there was a Conservative Government, Labour Members said one thing and did another when it
came to their own children's education. Now that they are in office, how are they delivering education in our constituencies? They claim that they will reduce class sizes to 30. I challenge any hon. Member to come to my constituency, Southend, West, where every primary school is full, and tell us how we can have classes of 30 or fewer. We do not have any grass to put portakabins on. We do not have room in our playgrounds for extra classrooms. In Southend, West, classes of 30 are not deliverable.
A few weeks ago, I attended one of the new training sessions for our teachers. I witnessed at first hand this arrogant Labour Government humiliating teachers. There the teachers were, in front of lecturers, being told how to teach numeracy and how to teach writing, because every class is to have a numeracy hour and a literacy hour. The Government are destroying teacher morale.
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